verb

She had working hands that knew the feel of turf in the spring, the cuts and scrapes from sheafing oats, the soil of picking spuds in the back-end, all part of the annual cycle which had remained unchanged for years until more recent times.

The rye straw would be scutched or flayed during the long winter nights, sheafed and left ready for the thatcher.

The wooden bins, wisp-floored and empty of mice, will soon be heaped high by the strong arms of laughing young men boasting of the height of their sheafs, the speed of their reaping, and the goodness of their grains.

Origin

Old Englishscēaf, of Germanic origin; related to Dutchschoof 'sheaf' and German Schaub 'wisp of straw', also to the verb shove.